Social Gallery

Just a few photos of the recipients of long service awards at our recent Choir Dinner. A good time was had by all.

The 25 year Awards evening at the Bewdley Pines Golf Club and the President Chain of office ceremony.

K. M. C. have recently returned from a very successful fourth tour of Southern Ireland, based in the Cork area. They sang in three concerts each to full audiences and received standing ovations at every one. The first one was at the prestigious St Mary’s Catholic Church in Clonmel with the Army Band of the First Southern Brigade and Banna Chluan Meala – a youth band who have over a hundred members.

Secondly we performed with Dungarvan Brass Band at Lismore Church of Ireland Cathedral. Their M.D ex Captain Liam Daly was so impressed with our performance he contacted the Kidderminster Shuttle to sing our praises (metaphorically) and his email duly appeared in the letters column. Our third concert was at Ross Carbery Church of Ireland Cathedral where we sang on our own with solos from Bob Cutler one of our second tenors.

We also took part in two traditional Irish nights organised by Irish friends of the choir and as is normal on KMC tours songs were sung in many and varied locations, including Michaeltown Cave, a well known tourist attraction, hotels, pubs and on the Fastnet Ferry. In the hotel Minella, Clonmel, we entertained a wedding party and an annual cyclists’ convention. The choir were led by Steve Singleton who was outstanding on his first tour as Deputy Musical Director and he and the choir received sterling support by accompanist Margaret Tillott on the keyboard.

Social activities included walking, swimming, golf and visits to the Rock of Cashel and Garinish Island in Glengariff. The choir resumed friendships with old friends and made many new ones with many invitations to return. All in all another very successful KMC tour.

Tour of Cornwall

The choir enjoyed another successful and eventful annual tour when we visited the beautiful fishing port of Looe in Cornwall where we stayed at the Hannafore Point Hotel. We are extremely grateful to the management and staff at the hotel for looking after us so well. We were delighted to be invited to sing at two concerts, firstly as the guests of the Looe Valley Singers and secondly at a combined event with the Rame Peninsula MVC and Burraton MVC.

On Friday 11th June we were the guests of the Looe Valley Singers at a concert held to raise funds for the charity Help for Heroes. The Kidderminster Male Choir has supported H4H since October 2008 when we released a CD called Songs for Heroes which so far has raised over £40,000 for the charity. The ladies of the Looe Valley Singers were excellent hosts and supported us throughout the weekend even to the extent that they ran the gauntlet and came to our inhouse social event at our hotel on the Sunday evening.

Our second concert was held at what was originally (AD926) the Cornish Cathedral of St Germans. We appeared as guests of Rame Peninsula MVC and Burraton MVC. The concert was organised to raise funds towards the maintenance of the building. After the concert the Rame Peninsula MVC provided us with suitable sustenance and the choirs enjoyed a traditional singing afterglow. Both concerts were exceptionally well supported with capacity audiences who called for encores and dare we say with all due modesty gave the choirs standing ovations.

On the social side of the tour, a hardy walking group trekked over hills and through country lanes to nearby Polperro and back. Another group visited the Lost Gardens of Helagon. Some enthusiasts took part in a golf tournament on one of the days. In addition, we held our traditional social night when choir members entertained each other and our guests with various and often hilarious variety acts. We have printed some photographs from the tour to give visitors to this site a flavour of our memorable visit to Cornwall.

Next year we are bound for the Emerald Isle which we have visited in years gone by and we are looking forward to experiencing more of that wonderful Irish hospitality.

On Tour

This year we are off to Cornwall but last year the choir went to Poland. The Poland trip was both a moving and exciting experience and as can be seen from the photos attached a good time was had by one and all. Following the tour we invited Singleton Ladies Choir from Swansea to perform with us in a concert at St Mary’s Church in aid of a Polish Charity which we supported on the tour.